• Freo's big defensive aim
• Match preview v Adelaide
• 'He's been the best defender in the competition this year'

Griffin Logue is on the cusp of returning to football after just falling short of a return last week, according to high performance manager Jason Weber.

Weber said Logue was ‘unlucky’ not to be cleared to play football a week prior.

“Griffin probably just fell short a little bit on some training metrics last week but he’s backed up fantastically,” Weber said.

“His attitude and application has been awesome, he trained really well on the weekend so we’re looking forward to having him available this week.”

Weber gave versatile midfielder/defender Connor Blakely a clean bill of health after making his return via Peel in the WAFL last Saturday.

“Connor returned really strongly, he got through the game without any issues at all and he put up some good numbers, he ran well,” Weber said.

“Obviously, he said he felt a bit under the weather early but he certainly got some gas back later so we look forward to him being back and available this week.”

Weber said both Harley Bennell (calf) and Stephen Hill (quad) are up and running in their recovery process.

“Harley has done well. He had a very strong running session on the weekend,” Weber said.

“We’ll get him back up and going again on Wednesday with a view to return to team activities in the next week or two.

“Stephen ran this afternoon, he’s getting up and going. He is certainly doing everything he can at this stage.”

Weber said that ruckman Aaron Sandilands continues to work hard in his recovery from a calf injury.

“Without question, Aaron’s attitude and application hasn’t wavered once along the way,” Weber said.

“He trained strongly today and we look forward to having him on the field again very soon.”

Weber said that Hayden Ballantyne (hamstring) and Shane Kersten (foot) are also back running.

“Hayden obviously had that recurrence a couple of weeks ago with his hamstring injury,” Weber said. 

“He started his running program today, he’s progressed through his strength markers and is doing really well. His attitude is really positive, he’s keen to get back this year and I’m sure we’re going to achieve that.

“Shane is recovering from foot surgery a couple of weeks ago. He ran strongly this afternoon so he’s progressing along nicely.”